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CHAPTER SEVEN: BRASS TACKS - PART TWO
Azel watched Harri sign her name at the bottom of the contract, feeling absolutely none of the usual satisfaction or excitement he usually experienced. He just felt… tired. While most of the holy oil had worked its way out of his system, he still felt sluggish and irritable. Or maybe that was because he hadn’t been sleeping well. He couldn’t believe he’d been duped again.
And by her.
He glared at the top of her head as she initialed and signed and dated this and that. She’d seemed so sweet. Innocent. But, after decades of seeing humanity at their fallen, he really ought to have known better. No one was innocent. Especially someone willing to deal with a demon like him. Everyone was capable of cruelty and deceit and betrayal. All it ever took was a push.
Azel shook his head. What was he doing here? She’d fucking poisoned him. Even now, he still could barely believe it. He would never have thought her capable of something like that.
But he should have. Fear made people desperate and willing to do all manner of things, cross all manner of lines. And he knew she had been scared, had felt her fear. Her fear of him, because of him. He’d known she was already terrified of one person in her life who couldn’t control his emotions, yet he’d still allowed his own to overtake him.
He winced at the memory. In the end, that was why he’d agreed to meet with her. Because, in spite of everything, he couldn’t even blame her. He was a demon. She was a human. They were natural enemies. Cosmically designed to prey and persecute each other in an eternally endless cycle. She should be frightened of him. When he thought back to what he’d wanted to do to Nate in that moment — what a part of him still wanted to do to the weaselly waste of humanity — yeah, she’d had every reason to be afraid. He rolled his shoulders and tucked his hands in his lap, trying to look as non-threatening as possible.
Once she was done signing, she set down the pen and stood. “I’m s-sorry,” she stammered, “I need to— I need a minute to—” She shook her head and clutched her bag to her chest. “I’ll be right back.”
Quietly, he watched her hurry off toward the restrooms. And away from him. That was fine; he could probably use a moment to himself anyway. The deal was done. Now all there was left to do was fulfill his end of the bargain. Azel picked up the pen and reached for the papers.
Only to have them snatched out of his hands. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
Azel looked up and blinked in shock. “Xara?” He frowned at the tall, lithe succubus now leaning over his table, the pages of his contract crinkling in her grasp. They’d known each other before the amnesty agreement had been signed. Had flown about in the same circles in Hell. Huh, he hadn’t known she was in the city now.
“Are you crazy?!” she hissed as she slid into Harri’s seat. “Doing deals with humans? In public?!” She shook her head, her long, black hair ruffling around her curved, red horns. “Do you want to be locked away for life?”
Azel reached for the papers only to have her yank them away. “It’s not what you think,” he assured her. “It’s not a demonic deal. It’s just for money, not her soul.” That kind of thing might be frowned upon, but it wasn’t illegal.
“Oh, and you think that makes it okay?” She scoffed and pointed a black tipped nail at him. “You think we live in a world that’s going to see your name on a dotted line and give someone like you the benefit of the doubt?” She waved the sheets at him. “You really think, if you’re caught, this doesn’t make trouble for all of us? That it doesn’t make all of us look more suspicious to them?” She shook her head again in exasperation. “I always knew you could be reckless, but what the hell are you thinking, Brimm?”
Azel felt his already scarlet face flush with embarrassment. “Look, it’s been hard out here, okay? No one will hire me. No one wants a demon working for them. And the few who do,” he said through gritted teeth, “know they can jerk me around, pay me shit, and throw me away on a fucking whim, because what the hell am I going to do about it?” He hung his head. “I need money, Xar. I need this.”
The words that had been burning in his soul for days — weeks, months, for goddamned years now — tasted like ash on his tongue. He hated feeling helpless. Choiceless. Stuck. This — what-the-fuck-ever this even was with Harri — was at least his choice. And that was more than he had most days.
“And she needs it too,” he continued. “She needs help and I can give it. It’s a win-win where no one gets hurt.” It was fine. Fine! It had to be.
She scoffed. “They don’t need us, Azel,” Xara stated. “Humanity’s made it pretty damned clear that they can barely tolerate us. If this goes bad, this kind of thing could damn our entire kind. Could cause a demon-wide ban topside. Is that what you want?” She narrowed her gaze at him scoldingly. “Do you want to go back to Hell?”
No. Of course not. Despite what he’d told Harri, yes, their bodies were made to endure the ravages of Hell, but incubi and succubi weren’t meant to stay in Hell. Hell was a place of torture and damnation. And, sure, Azel had played around with pain, when the situation had called for it, but always in the pursuit of pleasure. His kind was created to exist with humanity and the complexities of their desires. Trapped in Hell, he’d wither away surrounded solely by pain and despair. He couldn’t do that, wouldn’t survive that, much less ask the rest of his kind to do it too.
Xara sighed and shook her head. “Look, I know it’s rough these days. If you need a job that bad,” she said as she reached into her purse and pulled out a card, “come by my shop and I’ll see what I can do.”
Azel looked down at the ruby-colored card.
Madame Xara’s Little Shop of Develry
Where Your Pleasure is Our Business
Azel’s eyes bugged. “You’re running a brothel?!” And she was questioning his life decisions. Was she kidding? How was this any better — how was it not infinitely worse — than what he was doing?
“It’s not a brothel,” she said. “You think the government would let a succubus open a business like that, much less let me hire other succubi to work for me?” She shrugged. “It’s a sex toy shop. We strictly sell things, not services. Toys, lingerie, lube, books, videos, that kind of thing.” She pointed to the description of the store on the card. “Totally above board; we get inspected and audited by the government regularly. Always pass with flying colors. I make certain we do; I won’t tolerate any funny business.” She sniffed proudly. “We are what we are and can’t change that, no matter how much the world wishes they could. This is a way for us to do what we do — know and fulfill people’s deepest, darkest desires — in a completely legal, if not wholly socially acceptable, way.”
She tapped the card. “I won’t lie; it was hard going for a while there. I had to claw my way to be seen as legitimate and we still have to work hard every day to be successful, but we’re doing well for ourselves.” She gave him a sympathetic smile. “I can’t guarantee it’ll stay that way but, if you’re willing to work hard too, I can see about finding you a place with us.” She studied him. “It’s succubi run and staffed, but we might be able to use an incubus on roll too.”
He took a breath, still staring at her card. He could do this. Be a part of something that felt real and stable. Something that couldn’t be torn from him at any moment for no reason at all. Something that worked with his skills and talents, rather than against them. He flushed hotly as he fought to blink back tears. After struggling so long to just scrape by, being simply given an opportunity like this seemed too good to be true. “You mean it?”
She nodded but raised an eyebrow before pushing the contract back at him. “But absolutely none of this. I cannot have anything like this anywhere near my business. Even the association could destroy us. Got it?”
He frowned as he stared at the now rumpled papers. “But I already said I would.” They had a deal.
“She signed the contract; you haven’t,” Xara pointed out. “No one knows better than you what makes a deal truly binding.” She shot him a warning look. “You still have options now. Don’t do something you’ll regret later.”
He gathered up the contract, staring at Xara’s jewel-toned card glinting against the stark black and white sheets. He had options now. Choices. He just had to pick the right one. Scratching his horn, he swallowed hard. “Thanks, Xara. For everything.”
She nodded. “In a world that wishes we’d just disappear, we owe it to ourselves to look out for each other, right?”
He blinked up at her. Right.
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